


The Five Languages of Viktor Nikiforov

by athoroughlybakedpotato (acommontater)



Series: Life, Love, and Languages [2]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Languages and Linguistics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-20
Updated: 2017-03-20
Packaged: 2018-10-08 09:52:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10384023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acommontater/pseuds/athoroughlybakedpotato
Summary: Language is not only how you understand other people, but how you learn to understand yourself.





	

 

1\. Russian

 

Viktor is born and raised with the sounds and shapes of Russian on his ears and tongue. What it lacks in grace, it makes up for in power and utility. He wonders if the stiff edges of the language, beautiful in a terrible and wonderful way, are what made Russians seek out ways to express beauty with their bodies.

Taking and perfecting ballet from the French, learning how to make the ice sing under blades with both beauty and brutality- he roots as hard as anyone else for his home hockey team, but the blows and fights still make him wince and turn his head away.

Russian to him is the gentle names his grandmother called him when she pushed his hair out of his eyes, the murmur of people that fill the city, the brusk instructions that Yakov gives him. The language of home as intrinsically part of him as the bruises on his hipslegskneeselbowsribs from falling in practice and the stubborn pride that stiffens his spine as he stands afterwards each time.

 

 

2\. Yiddish

 

Viktor is fourteen when he leaves his family for St. Petersburg and everything is has to offer.

A man! His father says, clapping him on the back before pulling him into a hug to try and not let Viktor see his tears. His mother and grandmother cook an elaborate Shabbat dinner the night before he leaves, their chatter and the warm scent of apples filling the kitchen. He is seen off at the train station by them and on the train he closes his eyes, holds the green apple he’d grabbed for a snack, and runs through his prayers- letting the familiar musical words sooth him- like he would if he were at temple right now and not on a train speeding him towards his future.

  
Yakov hosts dinner for his top skaters once a week on Friday nights. He doesn’t call it Shabbat, not in so many words, but Viktor starts arriving early to help cook. Watches as Lilia lights the candles and says the blessing and Yakov pours wine and sets bread out (Not the soft, hand-kneaded bread in a braid like his grandmother made, that Viktor longs for, but hard bread that fits into skaters diets.) and sometimes he lets Viktor do the blessing instead.

  
As he gets older and busier, he becomes lax about attending temple. He makes an effort to on the weeks before he has a competition, but sometimes traveling makes it difficult. Not all of the places he travels have temples he can get to, nor do they always speak Yiddish for services. But the rhythm of the people and the words stays similar enough that it is soothing. The smell of smoke from the candles and the swish of the rabbi’s robes remind him of home and that is enough.

 

3\. French

 

He learns French next.

It is absolutely for the sake of his ballet training and not because there is a skater a few years older than him with dark fly-away hair, stern eyebrows, and smiling mouth.

Who speaks French.

It’s not that.

They never even actually compete together properly until years later. Viktor is too young to be chosen for the Olympic delegation the first time around, but he watches avidly and cries with him when the older boy takes home silver.

Lilia likes that he learns French because now she can scold him into better form two languages.

  
(He asks Lilia once why the stories he learns to tell are always so sad. She nearly smiles- for Lilia practically full-blown laughter- and corrects his head position. “We are Russian.” She says and Viktor nods, but doesn’t understand.)

 

 

4\. English

 

English, Yakov says, is a necessary pain. His tone of voice implies that he would use stronger language for his opinions on the English language, but Viktor is young.

It’s a nit-picky nasally language that sits too far forward on the tongue and frustrates Viktor to no end. In the end it does make life easier, but it never feels natural.

English is too much a tip-toeing language, for all it’s oddly-cut corners, it lacks the straight-forwardness of Russian or the emotion of French. Filled with meaningless filler words- if his tutor scolds him for leaving out the word ‘the’ or ‘to’ one more time he may scream- he can’t understand how anyone makes themselves understood in a language that works so against it.

  
The square-cut words of English shift and run away from him on the page the same way that Russian does. It gives him a headache to try and read it, so he watches movies instead. Sappy American romances with people being swept off their feet by true love, Westerns with cowboys and heroes, dry British dramas that are politely baffling, anything he can find. It’s nice to be able to listen to commentators in other countries and see what they say about him too, even if it’s not always nice.

 

 

5\. Japanese

  
There is a beautiful, completely, and utterly drunk out of his mind, man in Viktor’s arms.

He giggles up at Viktor and sighs contentedly when Viktor wraps his arm more securely around him so that he doesn’t fall as they walk down the hallway.

The other skater- Yuuri, he reminds himself, Yuuri that Yura had been so furious about losing a dance-off too- is babbling something softly, clearly trying to tell a story in a way that only the very drunk can, but Viktor can’t understand a word of Japanese so he just nods along or chuckles when Yuuri looks at him expectantly. Yuuri manages to stagger into his room and wave goodnight to Viktor.

Viktor stands outside in the hall for a few moments, trying to absorb the events of the night. He resolves to start learning Japanese. If he’s going to go to Japan and coach lovely, beautiful, stunning Yuuri Katsuki he’s going to need at least the basics down before arriving.

(Japanese is a difficult language, but Viktor decides nothing has ever been more worth his time.)


End file.
